Go as a River

'Shelley Read's lyrical voice is a force of nature and when she lends it to a woman leading a hardscrabble life in rural Colorado, the result is tragic, uplifting and completely unforgettable' BONNIE GARMUS, author of LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY''A beautiful, compassion-filled debut' DAILY MAIL'A compelling tale of love and a heroine fighting back' PATRICK GALEOn a cool autumn day in 1948, Victoria Nash delivers late-season peaches from her family's farm set amid the wild beauty of Colorado. As she heads into her village, a dishevelled stranger stops to ask her the way. How she chooses to answer will unknowingly alter the course of both their young lives.So begins the mesmerising story of split-second choices and courageous acts that propel Victoria away from the only home she has ever known and towards a reckoning with loss, hope and her own untapped strength.Gathering all the pieces of her small and extraordinary existence, spinning through the eddies of desire, heartbreak and betrayal, she will arrive at a single rocky decision that will change her life for ever.GO AS A RIVER is a heart-wrenching coming-of-age story and a drama of enthralling power. Combining unforgettable characters and a breathtaking natural setting, it is a sweeping story of survival and becoming, of the deepest mysteries of love, truth and fate.'A lush, beautiful, strong book. It took me on such a transformative life journey. I could not put it down' CLOVER STROUD'Completely spellbinding, vivid, and luminous' JANE GREEN'Go As a River delivers so very much: the tenderness and curiosity of young love, the eternal pangs of loss, the brutality of racism, the sustaining power of nature and the miracle of a mother's love. Suffused with wisdom and compassion, this shattering testimony to life must be savored, treasured, shared' MEG WAITE CLAYTON, author of The Postmistress of Paris

Shelley Read's lyrical voice is a force of nature and when she lends it to a woman leading a hardscrabble life in rural Colorado, the result is tragic, uplifting and completely unforgettable, A key title for 2023. This soaring, compassionate tale of female resilience is set against the breath-taking beauty of the natural world - its trees and mountains and light, Beautiful, lyrical and vivid ... Shelley Read's beautifully drawn characters are brought to life against the backdrop of the Colorado mountains. Full of wisdom and strength ... this is a powerful love story with an unforgettable heroine at its heart, A beautiful, compassion-filled debut - a hymn to the cycles of the natural world and testament to the resilience of the human spirit, A compelling tale of love and a heroine fighting back. She had me racing to bed so I could read another chapter

Shelley Read is a fifth generation Coloradoan who lives with her family in the Elk Mountains of the Western Slope. She was a Senior Lecturer at Western Colorado University for nearly three decades, where she taught writing, literature, environmental studies, and Honors, and was a founder of the Environment & Sustainability major and a support program for first-generation and at-risk students. GO AS A RIVER, her first novel, is inspired by the landscape she comes from and will be published in over twenty-five territories.